With its corny cover versions and syrupy ballads, the Christmas album had become a cheesy tradition.

But the much-maligned genre was rejuvenated by Michael Bublé’s Christmas (with global sales of 7.5 million), which topped the UK charts 12 months ago and has already re-appeared in the Top Five in a deluxe edition.

ADRIAN THRILLS sees how this year’s festive offerings compare...

Seasons greetings: Katherine Jenkins is among the singers to offer up their own take on the Christmas ballad this year

Share this article

With a new autobiography and a commanding appearance on last week’s X Factor, Rod is enjoying a resurgence, and this offering should keep his profile high.

Michael Bublé’s Christmas album is the obvious template, with Stewart covering six of the same seasonal songs and even trading lines with the Canadian crooner on a jazzy Winter Wonderland.

The title track is a blue-eyed soul ramble featuring Cee-Lo Green and a funky horn section, while Mary J. Blige joins Stewart on We Three Kings. When You Wish Upon A Star is stripped down and jazzy.

The only jarring note arrives on What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? One of those eerie, from-beyond-the-grave collaborations, this one featuring Ella Fitzgerald.

TRACEY THORN: Tinsel And Lights (Strange Feeling) ★★★★✩

Once the rich voice of Eighties bedsit-jazz duo Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn might seem an unlikely contender in the seasonal pop stakes, but her first Christmas record is an understated delight.

The track listing is wonderfully imaginative, with winter-themed songs such as In The Cold, Cold Night (originally by The White Stripes) and Randy Newman’s Snow rubbing shoulders with the holiday classic Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

There are two lovely new Thorn originals, in the haunting title track and the opening Joy, which also features husband Ben Watt and the couple’s three children on backing vocals.

KATHERINE JENKINS: This Is Christmas (Warner Bros) ★★★✩✩

If Rod’s seasonal manner is cosy and avuncular, Katherine Jenkins’ is that of an ice maiden.

The Welsh soprano does score heavily, though, with the simple beauty and grace of her voice.

Combining carols with light-hearted material, she moves away from operatic fare on a wintry Wexford Carol, before showing her versatility by dipping into Marilyn Monroe mode on Santa Baby.

But her take on Come What May, the love theme from the film Moulin Rouge!, is incongruous on a festive CD.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN & JOHN TRAVOLTA: This Christmas (Universal) ★★★✩✩

Three decades after they played Sandy Olsson and Danny Zuko in Grease, Newton-John and Travolta reunite for some well-meaning Christmas songs.

With proceeds going to the stars’ respective charities, this is the equivalent of an old-fashioned TV special, with guest slots from Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, James Taylor and Cliff Richard.

Travolta wanted an intimate record that wasn’t ‘too showy’, but the upshot of this is too many low-key performances.

LADY ANTEBELLUM: On This Winter’s Night (Capitol) ★★★✩✩

U.S. country trio Lady Antebellum released a six-track Christmas EP two years ago and have now fleshed out that record with six more songs.

There are safe standards such as Silver Bells and I’ll Be Home for Christmas, but also a slowed-down cover of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You and a honky-tonk take on the Elvis hit Blue Christmas.

There is even, in the title track, a band-written original, although the clashing of histrionic rock guitar and a children’s choir is decidedly absurd.

VARIOUS ARTISTS: A Christmas Gift For You (Sony Music) ★★★★★

Recorded nearly half a century ago and re-issued this year as a deluxe double album, Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift For You remains the mightiest of all festive collections.

First released in America on the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, it initially sunk without trace.

But, with producer Spector’s legendary wall of sound framing classic girl-groups such as the Crystals and the Ronettes in a warm, nostalgic glow, it stands the test of time superbly.

Darlene Love’s White Christmas and a Ronettes version of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus are personal favourites.